Campus Police Officer Ron Higgins is among the nearly 500 Yale employees who have participated in the Yale Homebuyer Program. To date, the University has invested more than $11 million in the initiative.

Yale & New Haven: Facts and Statistics

Nearly 500 Yale employees -- most of them first-time homeowners and half African-American and Latino -- have taken advantage of the Yale Homebuyer Program, which provides a $25,000 incentive for staff and faculty who purchase homes in New Haven neighborhoods.

* With its 7,500 staff and 3,000 faculty, and a payroll and benefits totalling $750 million in 2000, Yale
University is the largest employer in New Haven.

* Yale University attracts more than 550,000 visitors, who spend millions of dollars annually in the New Haven region, adding to the annual spending of students and staff in the community.

* More than 2,500 undergraduates -- nearly one-halfof all Yale College students -- volunteer in community service activities in New Haven, many of them in the New Haven Public Schools.

* Over 10,000 public school students in New Haven participate in University-sponsored programs on the campus or in the schools.

* The combination of Yale University payments and State PILOT makes New Haven positively unique. No city in America receives more direct budget revenue because it is home of a nonprofit university than New Haven does because it is Yale's home. The City receives over $29 million a year because Yale University is here.

* The University annually purchases over $240 million worth of goods in Connecticut.Through Yale's "Buy in New Haven" program, campus departments are encouraged to make purchases from companies in the Greater New Haven area.

* More than 15 biotechnology companies based on Yale research now operate in the Greater New Haven area, creating more than 1,300 jobs.

* Biotech companies raised more than $1.5 billion in new investment for the New Haven region in the past two years. Many of these companies are locating in
Science Park, a Yale-sponsored incubator for new businesses, and the 550,000-square foot building at 300 George St., which was vacant for most of the 1990s. The latter is in the midst of a $20 million renovation. Both facilities are owned by private developers with substantial experience and success in creating biotech facilities.

* Yale was the top sponsor of last summer's New Haven Jazz Festival, which featured performances by Ray Charles, Dianne Reeves and Pancho Sanchez, and was attended by 100,000 people.

* In 2002, Yale University will rank as New Haven's No. 1 commercial property taxpayer.

* Each year, Yale pays New Haven $2 million in voluntary contribution for fire and other services (the University pays for its own police services). It is the only Connecticut institution of higher learning, or nonprofit of any type, to make such a substantial voluntary contribution to its home municipality.